Becoming A More Critical, Autonomous, Reflective Learner

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PRILHE Project - Lecturer’s Toolkit 3.5 Group Work Perhaps the most clear-cut finding from the PRILHE, Promoting Reflective Independent Learning in Higher Education, project research (and the prior LIHE, Learning in Higher Education project) was the preferences of non traditional mature students for learning in groups and through dialogue. Before I used to study in a very individual way……and now since I’ve started studying sociology, I’ve seen that working in a group has lots of benefits. When I think about the group as a whole I can see that working together has helped them and me on every level (Student, Spain) I don’t know if I would have managed that if I had learned alone. So we organized a small learning group and calculated written tests (subject accounting). And I’ve profited a lot from others who were better informed. For example, I didn’t know that it’s possible to borrow old written tests. (Student, Germany) The way the lecturer conducted his classes forced me almost to get out of my hiding. Right up to the moment of starting my studies I had been a very shy and quiet person, who couldn’t express her own opinion. Thanks to exercises which we do in groups and the discussions we have, I can now say aloud what I think, I don’t care what others think about me, I do what, according to me, is good for me and if someone appreciates my actions I have extra satisfaction that I do mean something in other people’s lives (Student, Poland) Group work is closely connected with the processes of building the group or more widely with group dynamics. This is a natural development of group processes: interaction, bonds, common aims, group homogeneity/heterogeneity, the structure, leadership, roles etc., which reinforce and support the learning of group members. There is no doubt that the experience, knowledge and skills of members are enriched through belonging to a group. The effectiveness of group work depends on different factors such as group composition, size and cohesion (Zander 1982). These factors can also support the promotion of critical, autonomous and reflective learning in higher education, taking into account both the organisation of education and its content. Importantly, the use of group discussion in university education allows us to change the „location” of knowledge in university circles. Knowledge belongs not only to teachers, lecturers or the writers of scientific publications, but also to students. It is created in the process of group discussion. The addressees of this new (created) knowledge are both teachers and students and this knowledge has the potential to challenge pre-understandings and presumptions both for teachers and students. …. in this dialogue, discourse, the students will be seeking their own possibilities, they will acquire courage, the courage to admit that they know a lot, that they can do a lot with it and that they have these visions which they create, which they can create. (…) but, despite this, they come and, every now and then, I hear questions of what it should be like and now, by the means of these discussions, I wanted to free them from this duty, from the correctness which they always want to interpret, „what I really mean” (Lecturer, Poland) 28 Becoming A More Critical, Autonomous, Reflective Learner
PRILHE Project - Lecturer’s Toolkit Groups are also the context in which experiences are expressed, some teachers see this as problematic, When students start any discussions, these discussions will be at a very low level, it will be exchanging the observations of the type: „I once met such a person, who did that and this’’ won’t it …….And for me it is a waste of time, because – let’s say, generally I do not consider it a waste of time, because sharing my practice or sharing the experiences and the analysis of that is for me a very important thing. But this can be done when one has some basic knowledge about precisely some processes, methodology or something else, can’t it, then we can share these practical experiences, refer them to this knowledge, can’t we. However, if it is to be restricted to sharing an experience – then it is simply a waste of time. (Lecturer, Poland) This Polish lecturer’s main concern is not the learning process but the teaching task. This encompasses a traditional view of the hierarchy of teaching and learning which does not take account of the fact that learning is always a social process even in a period of teacher’s instruction.. CARL is critical of such non-reflective traditionalism. In fact, the production of knowledge in the process of group discussion allows us to realise what ‘we do not know’ and to learn about the cultural and social background of other participants of the group discussion and to disclose own life experience and the knowledge which arises on this basis. Other participants of the discussion are not only the source of knowledge about the world, but also about the people, participants of the discussion. Apart from knowledge of content, ‘a group discussion’ also teaches the skills of listening and argumentation as well as the attitudes towards oneself, others and the world. ‘A group discussion’ also creates a network of likes and dislikes and the feeling of community through the ideas, values and experiences shared with others. The following example from an asylum seeker in Finland shows how group work can contribute to a greater understanding of diversity and can contribute to greater social inclusion: Once I had to make a seminar presentation and I was the last to go. I became worried that the other students might be too tired to listen to my story so I said in the beginning that I hope that you still feel up to it. Then I started to tell about the asylum process in Finland and they listened very intensely and at the end of the presentation they applauded very hard. It felt very good! (Student, Finland) In higher education, ‘group work’ can take different forms, for example, informal learning groups (ad hoc groups for discussing a problem or a question given by a teacher), formal learning groups (forming a group for performing a particular task, project or an experiment, etc.) and study teams (a long-term group of students, who work for a specified period of time, e.g. one term during which they gain specific knowledge carrying out teacher’s specific requirements (Johnson, Johnson, and Smith 1991). They can also involve immediate and longer term learning processes. Sometimes, groups can be allowed to develop organically. I do not plan work diversification (workshop or lecture or group work), because this is simply an issue of intuitive feeling of how the group will want to work (…) this depends on how many leaders the group has, whether the group wants to talk, whether it should be more my utterances, sometimes I provoke them on purpose with some rather irrational ideas (……)to recognize them, the group (Lecturer, Poland) But at other times, more formal structures are appropriate. One example of a formal group that involves both immediate and long term learning processes is “the competence group” used in Sweden. In one Swedish educational programme, they divide the students into small competence groups which last the whole study period. The basic structure of the groups is to promote social learning, to build a framework for different tasks during their studies but also to become the basis for the individual to grow (see Wenger & Snyder, 2000, Davenport & Hall 2002). In the beginning it can be difficult when the students get to know each other. Becoming A More Critical, Autonomous, Reflective Learner 29
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Becoming A More Critical, Autonomous, Reflective Learner

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